Do you want to love the life you’re living?

One way to achieve all this and more is to be known as an authority in your niche. Here’s the direction I recommend you go to be well seen and well heard so you can be well known and well paid.

You need to be a VIP with VIP ~ a Very Important Professional with Valuable Intellectual Property, AKA Valuable Information Products.

“Why this path?” you may be wondering. 

Because once your expertise is out of your head and in physical and digital form, you can contribute it to the world. That way it can generate leads and income.

Content may be king. The question is what content? Before we can create content that others will find valuable, we need to know who those others are who we want to attract and serve. 

We may need to create and share clear, concise, and compelling messages and to know where to put them so they can be easily found by those looking for us. Before we can we write messages that leave a trail of breadcrumbs that lead to our door, we need to know who we want to talk to, who we want to attract, who we want to serve. 

So start by building a strong foundation. Here are a few questions I suggest you answer. 

Who are our ideal clients? Think of 3 categories:

• ones we love to work with (our passion) and who love to work with us (their passion)
• ones we’re expert at helping (our expertise)
• ones with whom we make the most money (income)

What problem(s) do they have that you solve for them or help them solve? 

How do you do that? 

What results do they get when they work with us and how do they benefit from those results? 

What makes us, what we do and how we do it unique so people would be crazy to work with anyone else?

In the coming weeks I’ll be blogging more about what you can do to be a VIP with VIP. I’ll be offering tips, tools, techniques, and strategies you can use. I’ll be creating Success Activities you can do quickly and easily. And I’ll be offering programs to help you get unstuck, overcome Marketing Resistance Syndrome, and take the next steps that help you take yourself, your business, and your life where you want to go. 

And remember, if it’s got to get done, let me help you make it fun!

Fun is a prerequisite to excellence.

Play is the behavior of enlightenment.

P.S. If you want to be known as an authority in your niche, join Mari-Lynn Harris and myself every Wednesday 2-3 pm est on BlitzTime. It’s the coolest place to meet like-minded people. We gather on the phone to network, build relationships, and learn how to do what it takes to become well seen and well heard so you can be well paid. Click on this link. You’ll land on our event’s page. You’re in the place to register for one or more calls for ”How to Be an Authority in YOUR Niche.” Your first 2 calls are free! Try it. You’ll like it!

So I’d like to ask you, “What leads to transformation: more information or more interaction?”

Because I know you’re a wise coach or consultant, I know you said “Interaction,” right? You want to become known as the expert whose interaction lead to breakthroughs and transformations, don’t you?

Then why are so many coaches doing free teleseminars that only offer more information?

This is a wake-up call. While many of the new things that available to us are positive tools, techniques, and strategies, one approach to how we coaches used to get prospects to know, like, and trust us was through interaction.

Remember those wonderful teleclasses that were a combination of information and interaction?

I know I want to experience someone leading a lively discussion or leading an individual through a breakthrough to transformation before I’m going to pay them big bucks for a course that promises to do that. How about you?

Yet every time I download email I get one or more opportunities to get more information. Sometimes it’s in the form of an e-book, sometimes an audio, sometimes a video. It may be a webinar or a teleseminar (talking heads only these days – no interaction please – it may reduce the quality of the recording, you know.) Sometimes the information is right there in the email.

I don’t know about you. I know more than enough to accomplish everything on my project and my task lists. And anything I don’t know, I can find out by picking up the phone, sending an email or an email blast to my own network, or getting on Google. And I’ll bet the same is true for your prospects and clients, too.

What I do want and need is more interaction. 

I want to talk about my ideas and hear about yours. I want to commit to you what I’ll do today or this week and I want you to feel free to do the same. I want support and encouragement when I’m facing a challenge, sorting out what I believe from what I was taught to believe, and especially when a light is dawning within about a pattern of thinking, feeling, and/or behaving that’s limiting my joy, my inner peace, and my success. And I offer you the same.

I want interaction because interaction leads to collaboration.

More important, I want interaction because interaction leads to transformation.

I believe with continued transformation, I create more inner peace, love and joy. I create energy and momentum. I create space for being more creative and innovative.

Truth be told, through interaction, I can admit to a trusted friend or adviser that my quest for more information is in part fueled by my fears and insecurities. In part, it’s fueled by my hopes that in this next offer I’ll find the key that shuts of my negative self-talk and delivers that missing piece so I can quickly, easily, yes, and finally achieve the success I dream of and work toward.

I sure wish more information could do all that for me. Yet I’ve gone down that path enough times to know it’s a delay, a detour, maybe even a dead end. Still I know more information isn’t the key to my success. So during my interaction, I can agree to gently and lovingly set aside my quest for the holy grail and spend the time and energy I’ve freed up to do something that will contribute to my joyfully making progress on my journey toward success.

Now, from my new perspective, the information I already have within or is already at my fingertips may become useful. I can see it in a new light, use it in a new way. If I need something new, I’ve got the juice, the motivation to find, experience, and integrate and apply it.

So, if you’re in information overload and you are looking for relief, do an experiment, take a risk, and delete all your new emails offering you, promising you your missing keys. Take that time to tackle the project or task that’s been standing in your way blocking your progress. Take that time to be still and connect with your Source, or to exercise, or to spend quality time interacting with that someone in your life who is there for you and you for them, that you might move beyond information into transformation. The treasures that await you will delight you.

And who knows, you may serendipitously pick up a gem of information or two along the way. Happy journeying!

P.S. I hope you find this blog post isn’t just another bit of information. I hope it inspires you to interact with someone close to you, or to interact with your prospects and clients instead of ‘just’ offering the more information.

And if you’d like to participate in some juicy interaction, I encourage you to join Christine Laureano and myself on Wednesday, December 23, 2009, at 12 noon Eastern. I’ll be her guest on her Internet radio show, Coach in the Moment. You can listen at www.blogtalkradio.com/Coach-in-the-Moment or on your phone at (347) 215-8095. That’s the same number you’ll dial to talk with Christine and me. I hope you’ll join us.

Guess what we’ll be talking about? You got it. Does Information vs. Interaction Lead to True Transformation?

If you miss the call, come back here. I’ll post a link to the recording in a few days, so ‘ya all come back now.’

To your ever-expanding Joy and Success,

The Energizer Bonnie

Jim wrote a post at Community and Business on the CCC’s shared community website. Jim’s got a great sense of humor and he loves puns. In this post he’s asked, “What is the Web 2.0 Refrigerator Magnet?”

Great question, Jim. And I’ve got an answer for you…

Ah, Jim, there will always be a place in the world for ‘old fashion’ marketing! The answer to becoming known as an expert in your field or an authority in your niche is not an either/or, yes/no answer. It’s “Yes, and…” You want what I call a “HI-5 Marketing Message.” Imagine you could ‘Hi-5″ all your ideal prospects and clients in all your communications with them. Imagine you could deliver a message that’s Heart-Inspired, Integrated, interactive, Internet and Information-based.

How does HI-5 messaging relate to Web 2.0? For Jim’s post, the key word in the explanation of what a HI-5 message is Integrated. An integrated message platform weaves together traditional media channels with ‘old’ Web 1.0 tools, techniquest, technologies, and winning strategies with the new Web 2.0 and the coming Web 3.0 ones.

I want to get back to answering the question Jim asked in his post: “What is the Web 2.0 equivilant of the refergerator magnet?”

Hey, I think this is a great question to ask the LinkedIn community. We’ll get great ideas. And we’ll be building the web of links we’re weaving in Web 2.0.

By the way, in the spirit of taking a HI-5 message to the next level, I’d trade my refrigerator magnet in for:

• a bumper sticker with a URL that’s easy to read from the car behind
• a series of Tweets and re-tweets
• a conversation in Facebook or in your vibrant online community
• a continued asynchronous dialog among members of our CCC and anyone else who wants to participate
• a banner ad on your site and those of your strategic alliance partners and raving fans
• a real time conversation…
  • on the phone, of course, as we live thousands of miles apart.
  • We’ll record our conversation so we can turn it into
    • a podcast which we’ll submit to podcast directories so anyone can find it and listen to at their convenience.
    • an audio on each of our websites and our community groupsites.
    • We’ll also transcribe the audio track and turn it into an article, a blog post, an e-book or e-course.
• a YouTube video of two or more someones who looks like a present day average Joe or Jane. In fact, they’re wearing T-shirts with the refrig magnet’s message on the front and back, with logos, of course.
  • First this person goes to their mailbox to get and open the envelope with a refrigerator magnet inside, then
  • Then he walks to their refrig where they place the magnet.
  • Then she walks to their computer and looks at the banner ad, the blog post, and clicks on the audio play button to listen to the conversation.
  • Then they walk to their car, T-shirts clearly visible and read-able, they get into the car,  and as the car drives away with them waving, the camera zooms in to focus on the bumper sticker.
  • What’s the bumper sticker say? You guessed it. The same message that’s on the magnet!

So, all of the above are my suggestions for the Web 2.0 equivalent of refrigerator magnets.

What are your ideas?

And what about your suggestions for what would appear on those magnets, bumper stickers, T-shirts, titles, and such?

Here are a few of mine:

“Want to make more money? HI-5 your audience.” www.MarketingToYOURworld.com

“Want to grow your business? Trade your refrigerator magnet in for a bumper sticker.” www.MarketingToYOURworld.com

What’s your HI-5 marketing message? Share it here and you’re building your audience. in Web 2.0. In fact, you’ve made your Web 2.0 refrigerator magnet. Now pass it on wherever you’re communicating with YOUR ideal clients and prospects.

“Whether you’re doing business around the corner or around the globe, take YOUR message to YOUR World!” www.MarketingToYOURworld.com

I’ll add a few comments of my own at the bottom of Diane’s article. Thanks you, Diane.

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Diane’s Article:  9 Good Reasons to Start a Blog

Do you have a blog yet?
 
If not, you should start one—today! As soon as you finish reading this article!
 
Why?
 
Here are at least nine good reasons why every author should have a blog.

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1. They are very easy to create, update, and maintain.

If you can write an email, you can create and keep up with a blog. Plus, it costs nothing! You don’t even necessarily need a web host (though it’s best to have it hosted on your own domain), a designer (most blogging platforms have templates from which you can choose), or anything fancy. You can literally set one up in five minutes or less.
 
You can go to www.wordpress.com  and set one up there for free. If you already have a web site, see if you can install WordPress on your site. (If you have a C-panel where your domain is hosted, they often have something called Fantastico, which allows you to install a WordPress blog. For instance, with my web host, HostGator, it installs with very few, simple steps.)
 
Although I personally don’t prefer blogger.com, that’s another quick, easy, and free way to create a blog. You simply go to www.blogger.com , and follow their simple instructions on how to set one up.

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2. The search engines will find you quickly.

While it may take up to six months for the search engines to index your regular Web site (unless it’s an XSite Pro site, in which case you have search engine optimization superior even to blogs, in my opinion), with a blog you get found and searched within 24 hours!
 
Plus, blogs tend to get you a higher listing in the search engines. Why? Because search engines love content, and blogs are almost always pure content. Search engines also like fresh material. All you need to keep the search engines regularly indexing your blog is to post at least one paragraph, three times a week. Surely you can do that, right?
 

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3. Blogs enable other people to find you easily.

Related to the point above, people searching on your topic will find you quicker through a blog.
 
Also, you can easily link to other blogs and Web sites that are related to your topic, and they to you. This will again help your search engine rank, it will drive traffic to your blog and/or Web site (mine doubles every month because of this), and allow you to begin to create a “presence” on the Internet.

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4. Blogs allow you to interact with your readers.

Blogs allow other people to interact with your ideas, because they allow people to leave comments.
 
You can ask people questions about what they are interested in knowing about your topic, which can help you create a better book or information product. You can test ideas. You can ask for feedback on an article, post, or topic. You can tell them about something you have available and give them a link to another page on your Web site.You can update your book’s material via your blog, or answer questions from readers.

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5. Blogging can get you into a regular writing routine.

Hard to find time to write? Get into the habit of posting to your blog regularly, and you’ll have established a routine for writing.  If you’re strategic about it, you can even write your next (for first) book via your blog—and get feedback along the way to boot!

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6. People can subscribe to your blog. 

People can subscribe to be notified whenever you post to your blog, and receive notice via email or a feed to their own news groups. This can bypass email and spam filters and get your messages read.

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7. Blogs help you cement your relationship with your audience.  

Readers love to feel connected to their favorite authors. If they know about your blog, chances are they will read everything you post. Don’t be afraid to share things about your personal life. Readers love it!

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8. Blogs help you establish your platform.

By keeping up with your industry and becoming a filter for your audience, you can establish your expertise via your blog. Find other people who are interested in your industry or topic, connect them to each other, and get them talking, debating, and sharing. In this way you become a thought leader, which leads me into the next reason….

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9. The media love blogs.

Media often pay attention to blogs. They too are looking for fresh content, new ideas, strong voices. They may find you, but it’s more effective if you  supplement your blogging with press releases and personal contacts with the media. Point them to your blog for more information, and let them be impressed enough to put you on their “contact these experts” list.

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Diane Eble is a book publishing coach who connects authors (aspiring and published) with the resources, skills, and ideas they need to be well heard and well paid for what they love to do. Sign up at her website for news of articles and teleseminars at http://www.wordstoprofit.com. Check out her blog at http:/www.yourbookpublishingcoach.com. You might also want to listen to the replay of a teleseminar she did on blog security with Cathy Perkins, “the WordPress Wizard,” at http://www.publishingcoachweekly.com/teleseminarreplays.html. Check out Cathy’s Wizard Weekly teleseminars at http://www.your-blog-coach.com.

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Here are a few of my own thoughts:

10. Establish youreself as an expert in your field.

In fact, it makes you a VIP with VIP:  A Very Important Professional with Valuable Information Products.

In case you’re wondering, Information Product is today’s buzz world for Intellectual Property. In fact, now you can get your knowledge, wisdom, and expertise, AKA your intellectual property, from your head into a multitude of media channels. Many of these channels serve as both the message and the channel through which you deliver your message. You become more visible and credible which leads to becoming more profitable.

And you can more easily than ever reuse and reuse and reuse the same information: a blog post can become a published article, a topic for discussion during a radio show online or off, which of course gets recorded and posted as a podcast as well as transcribed into another article.

Now you’ve got the makings of an e-book with a digital recording or two – voila, you’ve got a multi-media package. And it’s digital – once you’ve produced the original and set up the delivery channel – your website, clickbank, your blog, squidoo lense and more, the cost of selling additional copies is extremely low, which means your profit margin is extrememly high! Abd you’re now generating passive, residual income. How cool is that!

This is important to do if you’re looking to establish yourself as the go-to guy or gal in your profession.

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11. If you’re in career transition, start your blog right now!

Have you ever thought of starting a blog if you’re in or poossibly going to be in career transition?

If that’s you and you’re wondering yhy I’m recommending you start a blog, consider this:

If you were the person looking to hire someone, would you choose someone who is exactly who you’re looking for or someone who’s exactly who you’re looking for AND they’re a published author, well known in their field?

Having your own blog gives you a degree of credibility others won’t have.

And if you’ve got your own blog, you might get to start or take over the employer’s blog.

This two possibilities give you a strategic advantage. And how important is that in today’s competitive market.

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12. Turn your blog posts into articles.

With a little extra time you can polish a good post and turn it into a great article. Submit it to a few article banks, AKA article directories, and you’ve given yourself yet another strategic advantage. While search engines like blogs because they’re updated more frequently than the typical static website, they love articles archived at article banks that get a HUGE amount of traffic even more. Your article on selfgrowth.com, ezinearticles, and specialty directories like biznik.com will show up even higher in search results than your blog post. Check it out!

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Well, it’s after 8 am and I’m in Florida, so if I want to walk with my 5 pound dumbbells, I’d better get out there right now.

While I’m out walking, how about starting your blog, or if you’ve already got one, write a post and share it with me so I can comment.

And how about paying it forward! Find a friend who would benefit from having their own blog and help them start today!

Happy blogging!

Oh, how could I forget… having your own blog is one great way to take your message to YOUR World. Guess what?

That’s considered marketing! Breathe! I know many of you consider marketing a four letter word. Well, it’s abbreviation is. And that’s no reason to let your marketing resistance keep you from spreading the word about who you are, what you love to do, and who you want to serve, to help solve a problem, especially because they’re out there looking for you.

So, yes, you’ve just taken another huge action toward Shattering YOUR Marketing Resistance. Congratulations!

And if you know you suffer from Marketing Resistance Syndrome, if MRS is stealing your dreams, if you’re determined to be well seen, well heard, and well paid, and you’re ready to do whatever it takes to overcome YOUR Marketing Resistance, go to my website right now and register for my upcoming teleclass series, Shatter YOUR Marketing Resistance. The first session is free. AND there’s a huge savings if you register for the whole program before the first session. Instead of costing $197, you pay only $97, and you get to sign up a with Study Buddy for the same $97.

That’s a great deal, isn’t it? So before you start your blog or next blog post, go to my website and sign up with that buddy you’re going to help with their blog or someone else who’s ready to take their business to the next level and they know it’s time to shatter the resistance that’s been standing in the way

I’ll be announcing dates soon. And to insure we create a safe space for transformation through the class activities and sharings space is limited. So go sign up today and as soon as I’ve finalized all the details, you’ll be among the first to know.

Today’s message is perfect for you and the members of the Develop Your Audience class of April – May – June, 2009, taught by Russell Cox, Diane Eble, and myself, the Energizer Bonnie.

The theme for the class ~ LET FREEDOM RING! Freedom to express our expertise through various media channels.

Here’s the message:

“On this day of your life, I believe God wants you to know…

the greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself.”

Saul Alinsky said that, and he was right. In almost every case, nothing is stopping you, nothing is holding you back but your own thoughts about yourself and about “how life is.” 

Your personal freedom to experience yourself and life as you wish is not being limited. Step into your choices and stop telling yourself that you can’t, when what you really mean is that you don’t want other people to feel the way you think that are going to feel when they see you making the choices you really want to make. Got it?

Love, Your Friend….

 Guess it’s time for us to look in the mirror, and shatter any resistance we’ve been harboring to do whatever it takes, to overcome whatever objections, to redesign the blueprints we hold dear and probably unconsciously – that stand in the way of our own freedom.

It’s time to SHATTER YOUR RESISTANCE!

~ Marketing Resistance

~ Writing Resistance

~ Speaking Resistance

~ Community Resistance

Shatter YOUR Resistance to anything that stands in YOUR way.

Stand up and step into the person you truly are so you can live your life on purpose. You are FREE to be yourself, express yourself, share yourself and your expertise with YOUR World!

Free to Develop YOUR Audiences around the different venues you’ve chosen as the vehicles to share YOUR Expertise ~ your knowledge, wisdom and experience ~ with those who are hungry and searching ~ for YOU!

To your ever-expanding Joy and Success!

The Energizer Bonnie

You know how NOISY it is out there, don’t you? If you’re like me, you’re always receiving incoming messages via email from people you know and even those you don’t know, AKA Spam.

You can’t switch on any kind of media, surf the Web, go to the grocery store, or drive your car from one place to another without being bombarded with advertising.

The trouble is, you as a professional, author, entrepreneur, or business owner ~ someone with a message ~ also need to get YOUR message across, don’t you?

So, how do you spread the word about YOUR message out there in a world that is absolutely saturated with messages?

How do you make sure YOU’RE SEEN and HEARD above the din?

I believe there is a very effective way to get people to listen and even buy what you have to offer. But it means embracing a new approach.

You’ll find out what that is in the article “Cutting Through the Noise So You Can Be ‘Well Heard’”: http://www.publishingcoachweekly.com.

The article was written by Your Publishing Coach, Diane Eble. Diane, Russell Cox and I are going to be co-teaching the interactive teleclass program “Design Your Village” that starts Thursday June 11, 3:30 – 4:30 pm Eastern.

Why would you want to design your village? The village is the infrastructure upon which you build your online community.

Today, having a list of email addresses is no longer enough. While having a group, like yahoo groups, is better, Web 2.0 and Social Networking have been around too long. People are too used to connecting and communicating with others to settle for less.

And now with online software platforms like CollectiveX, Ning, and iGroops, you can build your own online community.  

An online community is the perfect place for like-minded people can get to know, like and trust each other. And CollectiveX is the perfect platform for members to come together to learn, collaborate, co-create, and more in the spirit of cooperation.

A Groupsite powered by CollextiveX is also the perfect place for an instructor and students to gather to share supporting class materials, new ideas, questions, and to share with others the projects they’re working on for feedback and praise. That’s exactly why we have our own Groupsite for our class Design Your Village.

If the Design Your Village program sounds like interesting, remember we start on Thursday, June 11. There’s an early-bird special going on through midnight EST on Monday, June 8^th,  so check it out today! 

More about that here: http://www.designyourvillage.com.

The next time this program will be offered is late September, 2009.

Having your own online community is a great way to be well seen, well heard, and well paid. And isn’t that what we all want!

So visit http://www.designyourvillage.com and decide for yourself if you’re ready to have your very own online community. You’ll be glad you do!